U.S.-Iraqi troops clash with militia

Militants captured; airstrike kills others

Militants captured; airstrike kills others

July 28, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) - A fierce gunbattle broke out after a joint U.S.-Iraqi force arrested a rogue Shiite militia leader in Karbala on Friday, leading to an airstrike and the deaths of some 17 militants, the military said. U.S. troops also captured four militants suspected of links to networks that smuggle weapons and fighters from Iran, which Washington accuses of fueling the violence in Iraq with its support of Shiite militias. The U.S. military has promised to crack down on Shiite militias, which have been blamed for thousands of execution-style killings and roadside bombings, as well as on Sunni extremists usually blamed for suicide attacks and other bombings. Militia violence declined after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to lay low when a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown began in February. But such attacks have recently increased out of frustration over frequent raids against al-Sadr's supporters and the failure of security forces to stop bombings that target Shiites. In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, the joint force moved in before dawn to detain a man described as the commander of a breakaway group of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, along with two other suspects. The raid went smoothly, but the troops came under fire as they left with their prisoners, the military said. Attackers fired small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades from three locations and five militants were killed in the fighting that followed, the military said. Militants fired on a helicopter assisting the operation, prompting U.S. special forces to call in attack aircraft, which launched a strike that killed about a dozen more militants, the U.S. military said. The military said no civilians were in the area, but local Iraqi officials said nine people were killed, including four militiamen and five civilians, and 23 people were wounded. The military said their main target was a Mahdi Army assassination cell that had broken off from the group loyal to al-Sadr. The military accused the man, whom it did not name, of being behind roadside bomb and mortar attacks against U.S. forces, as well as the assassination of two Iraqi government officials. A local policeman and a council member said a militia leader named Razzaq al-Ardhi had been detained along with his brother. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said another clash erupted between militiamen and a passing Iraqi patrol about three hours later in Karbala as mourners were removing bodies from the hospital. U.S. and Iraqi officials have said they are unsure of the degree of control the anti-American cleric exerts over his militia, which he founded in 2003 after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule. The Mahdi Army engaged in fierce battles with U.S. troops in 2004, but last year al-Sadr complained publicly about “deviant” groups using his organization as a cover for murder, extortion and smuggling. The military announced separately that a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Diyala, where an operation is under way against a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite extremists.